In June of 2013 Google unveiled Google Loon, the latest in a long line of similar projects that will use hot air balloons to deliver broadband and wireless services to under-served or emergency prone areas. Project Loon will use hot air balloons 49 feet wide stationed 12 miles above the planet, well above the range of commercial aircraft. Ground base stations set some sixty miles apart communicate with solar-powered radio transmitters affixed to the balloons, […]

T-Mobile will be among the first carriers to utilized unlicensed Wi-Fi spectrum to help supplement the company’s LTE network, the company announced today. According to a press announcement by Alcatel Lucent, T-Mobile will be deploying Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) in 5 GHz spectrum sometime in 2016. Alcatel-Lucent says they’ll soon begin LTE-U enabled small cell trials using Qualcomm’s FSM99xx small cell chipsets, with commercial products expected in 2016. What this means for you is that […]

Confirming numerous rumors from earlier this year, Google has announced that the company will soon formally unveil their foray into wireless services. Speaking at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, Google’s Sundar Pichai told attendees that their MVNO would be launched sometime in the “coming months.” Those hoping for Google to jump into the wireless market with both feet may wind up being disappointed. Pichai noted at several points that Google’s foray into wireless is […]

As we noted last month, Dish Network has been taking heat for some creative shenanigans at the recent AWS-3 spectrum auction. One, despite spending $13.3 billion at auction Dish appears to have used a legal “small business” loophole to save themselves around $3 billion. The company also took heat for using a variety of proxy companies to bid against one another in order to drive auction prices higher. It doesn’t appear that Dish broke any […]

As we’ve explored, one of the broadcaster markets hit particularly hard by Netflix is children’s programming, since parents (and kids) find it immeasurably more convenient to watch TV on their own schedule. Kids are also less likely to need to see the “latest and greatest,” resulting in what’s often been a 15% or greater viewership dip quarter to quarter over the last year. Nickelodeon has been particularly hard hit by Netflix over the last year […]

Grande Communications has announced the company has started deploying 1 Gbps broadband services in San Antonio. According to a company announcement, the company says they’ll first be offering their 1 Gbps “Power 1000″ broadband tier in Alamo Heights and Terrell Hills. The company says they’ll be offering the service for $65 a month, though the tier will top out at 400 Mbps in areas not yet upgraded to a gig. Grande’s also offering 50Mbps at […]

Ironically, March 1 to 7, 2015 is “National Consumer Protection Week” in the United States, a time when the Federal Trade Commission and 89 partners including nonprofit groups, businesses, and federal, state and local government agencies across the country will spotlight their efforts to protect consumers. The irony comes because new Federal Communication Commission rules on network neutrality, regulating Internet access as a common carrier service will have the effect of ending the FTC’s ability […]

Sonic.net CEO Dane Jasper is one of a growing number of ISP executives who’ve pointed out that the FCC’s new net neutrality rules — despite a lot of hand wringing from partisans and the mega-ISPs — are really not a big deal. In fact, Jasper has stated, the only people they really impact are ISP executives interested in anti-competitive behavior. ISPs already have to submit data to the FCC stating they’re engaged in reasonable traffic […]

Qualcomm today unveiled a new wireless standard they claim can utilize unlicensed Wi-Fi spectrum alongside traditional LTE wireless technology. According to the Qualcomm press release, the company’s new FSM 99xx chipset for small cells (in addition to new transceivers) will use Licensed Assisted Access — or LTE-Unlicensed — to take advantage of unlicensed bands. The company is expected to showcase the technology in great detail at next week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. “The FSM99xx […]

REDWOOD CITY, CA — The worldwide broadband access market, which includes PON, DSL and cable technologies, reached a new record of $11.5 billion in 2014, according to a newly published report by Dell’Oro Group, a provider of market information about the networking and telecommunications industries. “We’ve seen tremendous growth in the PON market over the past several years largely due to the broadband market expansion in China. Recently, however, we have begun to see strong […]